Hello everyone!
In our first devlog on Steam, we talked about the depth of our story, the city of Kumestik, and the core mechanics we completely overhauled. As our development process continues, today we are diving into what is essentially the heart of our game and the most fundamental mechanic you will have to face: "Encounters".
Every Choice Has a Price
When we first started developing the game, the structure was quite simple. We had established a loop played solely through encounters where we managed our basic resources and our council. However, this structure did not satisfy us after a while; it was not giving us the depth we dreamed of. So, we changed our course and tried to add that desired depth by making the stories "character-focused".
Now, a situation you face and a single choice you make can create a butterfly effect. For example, you encounter a disciple who comes to your door questioning the rules of the cult. Punishing them harshly (Left Button) can make the cult's Authority level skyrocket. However, this decision can destroy that disciple's loyalty, turning them into a "Heretic" and igniting the fuse of an internal mutiny. Forgiving them (Right Button), on the other hand, prevents the mutiny but jeopardizes the cult's Rationality, dragging you into much larger events.
Thanks to this structure, we can make every encounter have an impact that extends to the locations, objectives, and even the influence map in the city of Kumestik. While this offers us flexibility in storytelling, it also creates a massive workload. But as Narradive Studios, we do not want to make a game that we wouldn't enjoy playing ourselves.
(This footage is a work in progress and does not represent the final game)
The Inner Face of the Cult
Encounters are not always just about external threats or strangers knocking on your door. We wanted the cult to be dynamic in the background as well. Sometimes you have to face the ambitions and demands of your own disciples inside as an encounter. For example, a talented disciple you left out might throw a fit of jealousy and demand an explanation from you, or two opposite poles within the cult might clash and ask you to pick a side. In short, danger is sometimes right on the inside!
So, how is it determined which one of the hundreds of encounters will appear before you?
All encounters in the game appear before you after passing through filters such as your current season, location, day and night cycle, and special triggers running in the background. Meaning, as the seasons change and you navigate through the City of Kumestik, you face problems and stories suited to that atmosphere.
However, if some encounters tell a specific storyline, things change. These stories come your way as sequential parts. In these sequenced events, for instance, while having a deep dialogue with a new character wanting to join your cult, the in-game time stops flowing. This is because the event unfolds and concludes right then and there.
Reining in the System
Having so many encounters deeply affect the characters' loyalty and the cult's resources gave us a hard time with balancing at first. Tracking every single effect one by one was becoming impossible. Even though our custom visual node tool made our job easier, it wasn't enough.
To solve this, we made some changes to the system. Also, a quick heads-up: We decided to rename our core resources from Faith, Morality, and Secrecy to Authority, Rationality, and Clemency. We made this change because we feel these new names are much clearer, more consistent, and fit the core mechanics perfectly. We limited these core resources to a maximum of 100 units. For this reason, we divided the effects of the encounters on resources into specific weight classes. For our Disciple and Money resources, which do not have a maximum limit, we can still input values without any specific cap just like before.
This is how we are striving to establish in-game balance. Even if it seems easy at the beginning, do not get complacent; as the game progresses, the weight and cost of every decision you make gradually increase thanks to the time multipliers running in the background.
But what if you can't strike the balance?
When a critical resource drops to zero, the game does not instantly slam a "Game Over" screen in your face. Instead, Chicken Prime, the very deity our cult worships, offers you a one-time chance. This way, you get an opportunity to bring your cult back from the edge of the cliff. Therefore, you should make good use of this last chance given to you by Chicken Prime. Remember, he never clucks in vain!
You also have a Council that is constantly by your side and reacts to the events while you make your decisions... However, we are saving that topic for our next devlog!
Seeing you with us while building our cult and constructing our universe is a great source of motivation for us because we are maintaining all these processes as a 4-person indie team working from our homes. For this reason, if you want to support us and not miss out on new devlogs, do not forget to add the game to your Wishlist and follow us!
See you in the next Devlog!